Welcome to adobo-down-under!

Musings. Family. Food. Stories. Cooking. Recipes. Eating. A recipe journal. From simple Filipino dishes to challenging recipes and exciting gastronomical failures. This is for my girls to look back on for comfort, memories, laughs, love and lots of food!

Monday, August 18, 2014

A month ago, we had experienced a tragic loss in the family. An aunt who
is very close to my heart was in an accident during Typhoon Glenda in mid July,
which led to her passing. It was a matter of days and everything
happened so quick that we barely had time to process it all in. And
being overseas did not make it any easier. I was constantly on the
phone with my cousins, anticipating good news after the accident, and
then after the sad news came, it was a matter of waiting. There were no
wounds or scars but pain can be felt from thousands of miles away. The
day she was laid to rest, I could feel a knot in my throat, in my chest
and the only comfort was tears. Tears that kept flowing sporadically.
While cooking. I’d be sitting in the lounge and tears just flowed.
It was hard to say good bye. My only consolation was the time spent
with her when we went to Manila the last week of May. It was brief
but full of laughs and memories that I hold onto now. She hugged me so
tight and asked me not to go back to the city yet.

I
look back at how she was a big part of my life growing up. She was the
aunt who let us kids browse through her records and play ABBA on
repeat, The Beatles and the Bee Gees. Later on, she’d support us with
our love for Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran and Rick Astley. Taught us
dance moves that we would use for pretend beauty pageants she’d host at
her place. She was the aunt who knows secrets you’d never tell your
parents. When I broke up with a boyfriend, she was the first one on the
phone – inquiring, asking, consoling. She meant a lot to the nieces and
nephews she’d help and spend time with growing up, as she did not have a
family of her own. She was single. But had a family who loved and
supported her till the very end. She was 61.

Loss
is a difficult experience and it brings out humanity’s vulnerability.
For days I felt really uneasy, fearful even. My head felt literally off
centre and I found myself with bouts of anxiety – while driving, while
at work, while cooking. My thoughts were filled with so much negative
energies that I felt like I could just collapse while walking or doing
some chores. All of a sudden, I am back in that dark space late 2012 when I experienced a panic attack. It’s a
dreadful place to be. My headspace was so dark that I could only see
shadows. But I’m thankful for family and friends who unknowingly pull
me up from the abyss I created for myself with the simple words and
actions they do every day. As simple as picking me up for a yoga
session, or calling up to say hello. Those surprise hugs from behind
and words that say “I love you” indirectly. I am back to meditation and
yoga and walking. It clears up my headspace and puts me in a calm
state. Baking gives me that too. And so does reading. And writing. Coping with loss, we move on and try to grab onto distractions to keep us busy and preoccupied with new things, not because we want to forget. But because we want to mask the pain.

So I've been trying new things in the kitchen. Pinterest and Instagram inspires me. There is endless talent in IG alone and there's always something new to try because someone else baked/cooked/made it. And for weeks now, I've been trying different brownie recipes - gluten free, with fruits, with more chocolate, with more nuts, etc. And this is one of them.

As I write this post I can still feel a subtle knot in my chest and in my throat as I remember her. She will like this for sure. She loves dark chocolates.

It started in 2007 in
Colombo Sri Lanka, with the goal of “putting tea back to high tea”, the Dilmah
Real High Tea challenge initially included consumers to partake in the
challenge when it was brought to Australia in 2011.

Now on its 5th
year in Australia, the challenge now involves other countries: New Zealand,
Macau, Thailand, UAE, Malaysia, and Hong Kong.The 2014 challenge was opened to professional culinary teams to prepare
and craft their own recipe in one or more of four categories, where each recipe
must include a Dilmah tea in it.

Dilhan Fernando said
it’s all about “taking tea to the plate”.He mentioned that each year, the creativity is astounding and it is
amazing to be around such a passionate teams and culinary artists.Dilhan is the son of Dilmah founder and is
the Director of the Dilmah School of Tea – the first international school of
tea with sessions in Colombo Sri Lanka in partnership with the Institute Paul
Bocuse in Ecully, France.Aside from
the family’s passion behind the Dilmah brand and tea, they are also passionate
about environmental conservation and are involved in humanitarian projects in
Sri Lanka.

This year’s overall
winner from Australia is Geoff Laws and Shaun Thompson of Qantas Lounge by
Pullman, who will compete in Sri Lanka in 2015 against the world’s best
culinary tea masters for the chance to be crowned Global Real High TeaChallenge champions.

Dilmah founder Mr.
Merrill Fernando is excited at the progress tea has made in the culinary
world.He said, “tea is really much more
that what initially meets the eye – not only is it soothing to drink, both hot
and cold, but is also the most versatile herb to be used in the kitchen.I am proud of the winners, their gastronomic
ingenuity and their true respect of tea and the high tea tradition."